We investigate the magnetic field of a sunspot in the upper chromosphere and
compare it to the field's photospheric properties. We observed the main leading
sunspot of the active region NOAA 11124 on two days with the Tenrife Infrared
Polarimeter-2 (TIP-2) mounted at the German Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT).
Through inversion of Stokes spectra of the He I triplet at 1083.0 nm, we
obtained the magnetic field vector of the upper chromosphere. For comparison
with the photosphere we applied height-depended inversions of the Si I 1082.71
nm and Ca I 1083.34 nm lines. We found that the umbral magnetic field strength
in the upper chromosphere is lower by a factor of 1.30-1.65 compared to the
photosphere. The magnetic field strength of the umbra decreases from the
photosphere towards the upper chromosphere by an average rate of 0.5-0.9 G
km−1. The difference in the magnetic field strength between both
atmospheric layers steadily decreases from the sunspot center to the outer
boundary of the sunspot, with the field (in particular its horizontal
component) being stronger in the chromopshere outside the spot, suggestive of a
magnetic canopy. The sunspot displays a twist that on average is similar in the
two layers. However, the differential twist between photosphere and
chromosphere increases rapidly towards the outer penumbral boundary. The
magnetic field vector is more horizontal with respect to the solar surface by
roughly 5-20∘ in the photosphere compared to the upper chromosphere.
Above a lightbridge, the chromospheric magnetic field is equally strong as that
in the umbra, whereas the lightbridge's field is weaker than its surroundings
in the photosphere by roughly 1 kG. This suggests a cusp-like magnetic field
structure above the lightbridge.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in A&
